Chapter 6: A Walk in the Woods

When I got back from seeing Cassie, I did not know what to do. I was happy that she seemed to be more comfortable around me, as that would make it easier when it comes to keeping her safe. However, I know I was lying to myself, as that was not the only reason why I was happy.

Thinking about Cassie gave me a strange feeling. Nothing bad, just a feeling that I used to know her, but I could not figure out why I had this feeling. Cassie was only 16 years old, so I would have remembered if I had met her before. It did not make sense. Thinking about it, I really should not have any romantic feeling for Cassie. She was only 16, and I was several centuries old. However, I had never felt, what I was feeling, towards anyone before.

I was debating whether I should report back to Nick

how the week has gone, but he told me to be careful and only get in contact if there was anything important going on, besides he would probably have my head if he realised what I was feeling towards his daughter.

As usual, I turned into a bird to pass time. It really was my favourite thing to do, especially when I had a lot on my mind. Nothing beats just flying around catching the wind between my feathers and looking down at the people as they go about their day. It was also a good way to send my energy out and feel for anything supernatural. I detected a few lower beings but nothing that would be a threat to Cassie and nothing that I would not be able to get rid of in the blink of an eye.

After I got back home, I checked my phone and realised that Cassie had texted me. She wanted to meet up the next day to start training. I texted her back to let her know that I was happy to oblige. Afterwards, I walked into the living room. I struggled to contain my excitement, so I started to redecorate the living room by removing some of the furniture and other things that we would not need for the training. I looked around the now empty room and conjure up some new things that could be useful for the training. When I was happy with how the living room looked, I went to bed.

The next day, I offered to pick Cassie up, but she told me that Leah wanted to drive her. She jokingly explained that the reason for it was so that Leah knows where I live in case Cassie did not come back home. I thought it is quite ironic as Cassie was the safest when she was with me, however Leah had no idea who I was, or what I could do, so it did not surprise me that she was a bit worried. Instead it made me feel happy that Cassie had people in her life that seemed to really care for her.

While I waited for Cassie and Leah to turn up, I strengthened the protective spells around the house. I know that I was being a bit paranoid and that it was probably unnecessary, as they were already quite strong. The chances of Cassie overpowering the spells around the house was very small, but just in case Cassie ended up using a lot of energy, I did not want anyone to be able to sense it.

The black beetle turned into the driveway and I made my way out through the front door and towards the car. Cassie got out and said bye to Leah. I was unsure whether to go in for a hug, but Cassie quickly made that decision for me. She gave me a hug when she reached me. The electric shock hit me harder that time and it felt like I was remembering something that had happened a long time ago, but I could not recall what that memory was. I must have looked a bit confused as Cassie asked me if I was okay. I looked back at her and gave her a reassuring smile.

“Yeah I’m fine, let’s get inside and get started”

We walked inside as I heard Leah drive away. When we reached the living room, Cassie stopped and looked around.

“It looks different from last time I saw it”

I had completely forgotten that conjuring things up was not a normal thing to do, I guess I have lived away from the human population for way too long.

I considered trying to come up with a non-magical explanation, but I thought better of it. I wanted Cassie to trust me so it was better to be honest about as much as I could.

“Yeah, I just sorted the room out for our training session, I’ll change it back when we are done.

”

“But where are all the other stuff?” Cassie asked me confusingly.

“I can conjure it up or remove it as I wish, it is one of my abilities, you should be able to do that too eventually”

Cassie looked around the room again with a new look of astonishment on her face.

“Can you conjure anything up?”

"Well it’s hard to do specifics, and some things would be impossible to do, but most of the common human utilities are quite easy”

She gave me a cheeky smile.

“Can you conjure something up for me?”

She watched me as I made a rose appear in my hands. I handed the rose to her.

“A beautiful flower for a beautiful lady.”

I watched her take the rose and I could see that she was blushing a bit before she looked away. After a moment of silence, I clapped my hands together to get her attention.

“Alright let’s get back to training.” 

I moved over to where I had placed some yoga mats and sat down on one of them before I asked Cassie to sit down next to me. I cleared my head of any indecent thought I may have had and turned into teacher mode.

“First we need to get you to clear your mind and focus on control. The necklace should help with that, but if you can control your abilities, you should be able to turn your mind reading on and off without the help of the necklace. The necklace will not stop you accessing your ability, but it will help to redirect it, which is why all the noises, or should I as voices, stopped when I put it on you. The first step is for you to be able to control your mind reading abilities without wearing the necklace”

Cassie looked at me, while nodding. I talked her though some breathing exercises and explained that the ability to read minds was not a common one, and because I do not have the ability to read minds, I was not exactly sure of the best way to train her. I continued to explain that I have the ability to influence people, which is similar, therefore I believed that it may be controlled in a similar way.

After I have explained all of that, I asked Cassie to imagine the energy inside her, visualise it and either place it in a box inside herself and close the lid, or pretend that she is turning the energy off, whichever one felt more natural to her. 

We spent a few hours working on Cassie’s abilities and trying the different techniques that I mentioned to her. I could feel that she was starting to get frustrated as she still had not managed to turn her ability off. I was not very surprised, it took me a good amount of time and training to learn my abilities when I first discovered them, and I had always known what I was. 

In an attempt to get Cassie’s mind of the failed attempts, I suggested that we took a break and went outside for a walk in the woods. It was a lovely day. Not too hot, but still warm enough to be pleasant. While we were walking around, I talk about how it was growing up around the woods. I did not go into detail, like mentioning that my parents had abandoned me as soon as I was born or that Freya had taken me in and raised me until I was old enough to fend for myself, but I did tell Cassie how much I liked the woods and how calming I find them. After I had been talking about myself for a while, Cassie opened up about how it was growing up with a foster mum. I could tell that she have had a good childhood based on how she was talking about it, so I guess Nick was right in letting her go and hide her amongst humans.

When we had finished our walk in the woods, I asked if she wanted to try some more training techniques, or if she wanted to call it a day. I hoped she would decide to stay, but it was mainly for selfish reasons as I enjoyed her company. Cassie looked a bit thoughtful for a while before she spoke up and told me that she was happy to continue practicing. To mix it up a bit, I suggested that instead of her trying to shut her power off, she could try to use them. I explained that I would think of something and ask her to try and guess what I was thinking about. I tried to coach her through how to do it, but as I do not actually know how her ability worked, I did not think I was much help.

Just before we started, I mentally blocked all my other thoughts that was going on in my mind, there was no point in Cassie figuring out how I really felt about her, at least not while she is starting to trust me. I started to think about an apple, how it looked, what colour it had and how it tasted, as I thought that it would be an easy thing to try and pick up on. I struggled to keep the mental image of the apple in my mind when she started to stare at me. Instead of thinking about the apple I started imagining how it would feel to kiss her. I realised that I was not much help, as I was so distracted, so I decided that we have had enough training for the day.

A while later Leah came to pick Cassie up. I walked Cassie to the car. As I was standing there, I got a feeling that something was off, but I was not sure what it was. Cassie said goodbye and got into the car. I throw my energy out to try and figure out what was going on, and that was when I felt it. Leah had magical energy inside her, which meant that she must be a witch.

Why had I not felt this earlier? I had seen Leah several times by now, but I had never picked up on anything unusual before now. What was going on?